Air Astana Boosts Istanbul Schedules

Following yesterday’s report that Turkish Airlines (THY) was to increase frequencies on two of its routes into Kazakhstan, it has now emerged that Air Astana will also boost capacity on its own flights into Turkey. From April 16 it will introduce a third weekly rotation to Istanbul Ataturk from Astana and from May 9 will add a fifth weekly link from Almaty and a second from Aktau. Seasonal links to Antalya will also resume from May 14 and Air Astana will add capacity this summer by using a Boeing 767 rather than a 757 on two of the seven weekly flights it will offer.

Around 224,000 O&D passengers travelled between Kazakhstan and Turkey in the past year, up 6.9 per cent on the previous 12 month period. Air Astana dominates the market with a 51.3 per cent share of this traffic with THY following with 38.2 per cent. THY offers two flights per week to Astana (increasing to three from April 14) and seven to Almaty (increasing to nine from June 2) from Istanbul Ataturk.

Schedule:

Aktau – Istanbul
KC891 SCO0345 – 0445IST 320 4
KC891 SCO0415 – 0515IST 320 7
KC892 IST0545 – 1040SCO 320 4
KC892 IST0625 – 1120SCO 320 7

Almaty – Istanbul
KC913 ALA0210 – 0455IST 320 2
KC911 ALA0725 – 1010IST 320 x257
KC914 IST0605 – 1420ALA 320 2
KC912 IST1120 – 1935ALA 320 346
KC912 IST1210 – 2020ALA 320 1

Astana – Istanbul
KC917 TSE1855 – 2110IST 320 146
KC918 IST2210 – 0550+1TSE 320 14
KC918 IST2230 – 0610+1TSE 320 6

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NOTE: Schedule data extracted from Flightbase for week commencing April 14, 2011; Traffic data extracted from IATA BSP system for the year ending January 2011.